Fluffy Saturday

Thanks for the compliments on the new design. The teal and bright green were starting to give me a headache. It is basically the same layout, but with updated colors and graphics. When I first pulled out the teal/green stock template I thought there were too many graphics to do to make it my own, but once I started really looking at it there weren’t that many. I did the design a few weeks ago and was bored yesterday so you got the October look early. I’m awfully fond of the tagline this months too. One afternoon the trusty husband and I, in a delirious stupor, came up with some great ones. Of course along the way I’ve added to them and thrown in a few new ones. “Dysfunction Junction” was one of the first ones he came up with. “Stuck in the mid-Elle like you” came about because I had the song stuck in my head. And yes, I did that flag myself. This month the header is 100% simple mine. I showed my mom the preview and she couldn’t believe that I drew the cherry blossoms. Umm, those were easy. The rest is brushes.

Enough about boring web design stuff.

Tori asked a great question in the post below.

Your pictures are beautiful. What type of camera do you use?

I had to laugh maniacally at that one. I own 4 cameras. One is a super old and busted automatic film camera. I don’t use it anymore, and am not exactly sure where it is. What I do know is that it takes some awesome photos. In fact, I have a series of prints for sale and the images were taken with this camera. So if you know anyone who would like a set of 10 professionally framed prints of Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon let me know. I’d be willing to drop the price to get them out.

I also have an old Pentax manual SLR. The trusty husband’s grandfather bought it for the trusty father-in-law and he gave it to me. I love this camera. Love it love it love it! Only problem is that it is a print camera. Not that it is a really bad problem. I was anti digital for a very long time. Simply because the shots I can get with this manual are incredible. And I know how it works and there is not 500 page manual to tell me how it works. I throw on a lens, turn some dials and click away. This is one of my favorite photos of the boy. It was taken with the film SLR.

I also own a Mamiya 645E. It was a gift from the trusty husband for my birthday a few years ago. This baby is a monster. I am talking h.u.g.e. However, it is a medium format camera. It took me months of research to determine what size of medium format to move up to. I settled on the 645 because of versatility. Trouble is the film and processing are outrageous. I have one roll sitting on the shelf right now that I really need developed, but I can’t afford it. Mainly because I now have all of my prints put onto disks and the digital “printing” is what kills me.

Here is an example of one of my photos off the 645.

The only digital camera I own is a Fuji Finepix S3000. This camera was the shit when the trusty husband bought it for me years ago. (can you see a theme with gifts in our house?) Now it is old and out dated. The shutter lag on it is terrible and I have to take 500 photos to get a good one. There is no speaker or microphone for sound with video and the video quality is awful. It is too bulky for a point and shoot, but not advanced enough to get the super awesome shots that I could with a manual.

My dream camera is this one. I can use all of my manual Pentax lenses and it is an all around great camera. Neal has one (maybe not the exact same one) and I’ve had the chance to play with it. I didn’t get too many great shots with it, but this is one that I liked. The depth of field on it is fantastic, unlike my Fuji.

Now if you want to get super nerdy next time we’ll talk about film.

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If you don’t see the new look (Mom) try going to “tools,” “clear private data,” and “clear private data now.”? Then hit the refresh button.? It will show up then.

13 Comment

Love the new look… Is there any ( easy) way to put a nice white center in my blog?… which I love by the way.. thank you so much… trusty hubby says its hard to read ( cause he is getting old) but don’t tell him I said that.

I so badly want a new camera… my new nikon just broke, and I am back to my old Olympus

I’ve been trying to get my hubby to update my blog design since just after the girl came home (not really waiting on the stork anymore – but I guess if he drags his feet long enough it might become relevant again).

Cameras…I am intimidated by learning to use one that does much beyond point and shoot (sad because back in the day I was pretty good with all of my lenses and f-stops). You photos are always lovely. (And I love love love lobeli.)

One suggestion on this beautiful web design: your links are almost the same color as the text, and are therefore difficult to differentiate (for those of us who are reading the post in a post-zoo stupor).

“And I know how it works and there is not 500 page manual to tell me how it works. ”

. . . that alone could sell me on just about anything right now 😛

I’ve never considered going Pentax, I’ve been a Canon girl from the day my mother gave me my pretty, sparkly film EOS for Christmas five or six years ago. Still, given that my ultimate dream camera, the EOS Mark III, will require the sales of several of my organs on the black market if I’m to afford it any time soon . . . perhaps I should consider Pentax after all *ponders*

Of course, I should really quit daydreaming and haul out my own 500-page manual to get a grasp on my manual AV settings before the Big Portrait Shoot two weeks from now . . . but daydreaming about cameras I can’t afford is so much more FUN!

I love my film camera. I miss my film camera. I’m resigned to my digital camera, but cannot get the pix I do with film. I’m assured if I spend $1200+ I’ll be happy with my digital camera…but cannot do that. Sigh. What’s a girl to do?

Yes. I time-share the lenses from my brother’s Pentax SLR, and have a few other sources where some are bound to turn up really, really cheap in the future (estate sales and 2nd hand stores). The manual is about 350 pages or so, maybe 500 as the pages might be New Testament-thin.

Feel free to ask if you want to take another day or two with the D-SLR.